Skip to main content
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Poetry

Linguistic Threads, translated by Alta L. Price

By Rahma Nur
Translated from Italian by Alta L. Price
you choose a tone that can convey / that gets you through the gaps
Rahma Nur Reads "Fili Linguistici" in the Original Italian
 
 

Afro-Italian poet Rahma Nur describes her experience as a member of a diaspora living in Italy, noting how language marks the body and how it shapes one’s sense of loss.

As you make headway
between the land where you were born
and the ground that took you in
a thread stretches to connect them
like an IV.
It feeds you words and sentences
prepositions and long periods
you can’t parse them
so you just let them flow in
between the red cells coursing through your veins
under your smooth, dark epidermis
which discourages presumptions
yet endures snap judgments:
Hadaad soomaali tahay maxaad somali ugu hadlin?1
or
You speak such fluent Italian!
Both here and there
muteness calls the shots
the only sure answer
is a non-answer.

They say words are music
they say words are food
they say words are art
but they don’t say words cause confusion
disorder
discomfort
distance
trouble
that words leave you speechless
facing other words
they don’t tell you words are language
that there are lots of languages
that not everyone has one
that your mother tongue
can become your stepmother tongue
and your wicked stepmother language
can become your gentle maternal language
and that they aren’t always interchangeable
and that you can spend an entire lifetime
without speaking one, even though
you have another two or three inside.
A mother tongue can be healing
but it can also make you sick
if you don’t speak it well
so you go with your stepmother tongue
as a spring to slake your thirst.

As the diaspora
shuttles you from one country to another
you choose a tone that can convey
that gets you through the gaps
both real and imagined
a code
that opens doors
and in this vacuum you’re living in
others are born and grow up
and the distance between siblings widens
just one connecting thread is left
it isn’t Somali, Dutch, Swedish,
it’s hands, skin, eyes,
your whole body
that fills the void
between one country and another.
It’s this external casing
that tacitly answers the questions,
that speaks for you,
because your mouth is rendered mute
by too many invading tongues.

_____________________________________________________
1. If you’re Somali, why don’t you speak Somali?

“Fili linguistici” first published in Formafluens vol. 2, no. 1, January–April 2020 (pages 17–18). © 2020 by Rahma Nur. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2021 by Alta L. Price. All rights reserved.

English Italian (Original)

Afro-Italian poet Rahma Nur describes her experience as a member of a diaspora living in Italy, noting how language marks the body and how it shapes one’s sense of loss.

As you make headway
between the land where you were born
and the ground that took you in
a thread stretches to connect them
like an IV.
It feeds you words and sentences
prepositions and long periods
you can’t parse them
so you just let them flow in
between the red cells coursing through your veins
under your smooth, dark epidermis
which discourages presumptions
yet endures snap judgments:
Hadaad soomaali tahay maxaad somali ugu hadlin?1
or
You speak such fluent Italian!
Both here and there
muteness calls the shots
the only sure answer
is a non-answer.

They say words are music
they say words are food
they say words are art
but they don’t say words cause confusion
disorder
discomfort
distance
trouble
that words leave you speechless
facing other words
they don’t tell you words are language
that there are lots of languages
that not everyone has one
that your mother tongue
can become your stepmother tongue
and your wicked stepmother language
can become your gentle maternal language
and that they aren’t always interchangeable
and that you can spend an entire lifetime
without speaking one, even though
you have another two or three inside.
A mother tongue can be healing
but it can also make you sick
if you don’t speak it well
so you go with your stepmother tongue
as a spring to slake your thirst.

As the diaspora
shuttles you from one country to another
you choose a tone that can convey
that gets you through the gaps
both real and imagined
a code
that opens doors
and in this vacuum you’re living in
others are born and grow up
and the distance between siblings widens
just one connecting thread is left
it isn’t Somali, Dutch, Swedish,
it’s hands, skin, eyes,
your whole body
that fills the void
between one country and another.
It’s this external casing
that tacitly answers the questions,
that speaks for you,
because your mouth is rendered mute
by too many invading tongues.

_____________________________________________________
1. If you’re Somali, why don’t you speak Somali?

“Fili linguistici” first published in Formafluens vol. 2, no. 1, January–April 2020 (pages 17–18). © 2020 by Rahma Nur. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2021 by Alta L. Price. All rights reserved.

Fili Linguistici

In quel passo che allunghi
tra la terra che ti ha visto nascere
e il suolo che ti ha accolto
c’è un filo che li lega
come una flebo.
Ti nutre di parole e frasi
di proposizioni e lunghi periodi
non puoi analizzarli
e li lasci fluire in te
tra i globuli rossi che attraversano le tue vene
nella tua epidermide scura e liscia
che non permette congetture
ma giudizi perentori:
hadaad soomaali tahay maxaad somali ugu hadlin?
o
come parli bene l’italiano!
Di qua e di là
il mutismo la fa da padrone
l’unica risposta certa
è una non risposta.
Dicono che le parole sono musica
dicono che le parole sono cibo
dicono che le parole sono arte
ma non dicono che le parole creano
confusione
disordine
disagio
allontanano
tormentano
ammutoliscono
davanti ad altre parole
non ti dicono che le parole sono lingua
che le lingue sono tante
che non tutti le posseggono
che la lingua materna
può diventare matrigna
e quella matrigna diventare materna
che non sono intercambiabili, non sempre
Se sei somala perché non parli il somalo?
e che si può trascorrere una vita intera
senza parlarne una benché
altre due o tre siano dentro te.
La lingua materna cura
ma può far ammalare
se non la parli bene
e ti leghi a quella matrigna
come una fonte che ti nutre.
Quando la diaspora
ti trasporta da un paese all’altro
scegli un linguaggio veicolare
che ti fa attraversare varchi
reali e immaginari
un codice
che apre porte
e in questo vacuum in cui vivi
altri nascono e crescono
e la distanza tra fratelli si dilata
rimane un unico filo che unisce
non è il somalo, l’olandese, lo svedese,
ma le mani, la pelle, gli occhi,
il tuo corpo intero
a riempire quel vuoto
da un paese all’altro.
E’ l’involucro esterno
che risponde tacito alle domande,
che parla per te,
perché la tua bocca è resa muta
dalle troppe lingue che l’hanno invasa.

© Rahma Nur. By arrangement with the author. All rights reserved.

Read Next